The above words were the theme of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1983 Templeton Prize address. Early in this speech he said, “And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: ‘Men have forgotten God.’”
Forty-two years later, immediately following the Sept. 10th assassination of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, husband, father of two small children, and conservative activist, Bishop Michael Burbidge issued this statement:
As Americans, we are witnesses in just the past few weeks to a vicious pattern of political and social disorder. At Annunciation Catholic Parish in Minneapolis, the killings of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel, two innocent children. In Charlotte, the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska. And now the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, known for his commitment to civil and rational discourse. We entrust each of these victims to God, our Heavenly Father and author of every human life, and his son Jesus Christ, the reason for our supernatural hope.
What we see unfolding in our nation is a vicious pattern of hatreds rooted in the rejection of God, of the dignity of the human person, and the sanctity of the family. We can eradicate these ills only through a firm reliance on God, through a deeper devotion to Christ and the Gospel, through a sincere love for persons reflected in law, and through a renewed commitment to justice and public order.
We are living through a perilous moment. Our challenge is not only one of partisan disagreement, law, and policy, but in a deeper way our challenge is to uphold the central goods of American political life: of faith, of families, and of a national commitment to live together in harmony as brothers and sisters.
In that brief statement lie the reasons for our culture’s present sickness and evil, and the only solutions that will ultimately cure them. In two of these murderous incidents – the shooting of the children at Mass, the stabbing death of the young woman in Charlotte – mental illness played a part, but so too did our culture. The transgender individual who shot up the church was led to believe that he could live as a woman. The man who murdered Zarutska swallowed some of the racist poison that infects our time.
Those who sat and watched this young woman bleed to death, or else snapped pictures of her dying, also reveal a culture rotten to the core, though charity demands the possibility they were too terrified to offer assistance.
While we don’t yet know the motives or state of mind of Kirk’s murderer, odds are likely that the shooting was rooted in the hateful political rhetoric that stains our culture.
Were we a culture of faith, the murderer of Zarutska would have been confined years ago to an insane asylum, not only for the danger he presented to society, but for his own well-being. Instead, we allow countless numbers of the mentally ill to roam our city streets.
Were we a culture of faith, the man who failed to become a woman would have been told the truth right from the start, that nature forbids him that possibility. Instead, our culture lied to him, and to thousands like him, by asserting that his wishes and feelings could displace chromosomes.
And were we a culture of faith, Kirk’s assassin would have understood that his target was a man of civility, a fellow human worthy of respect and not a bullet. Instead, radicals in our present-day culture have not only inflamed passions by irresponsible and ugly rhetoric, but have even celebrated Kirk’s death. In them “the dignity of the human person” seems sorely lacking.
One more key element in this culture war: the bishop twice mentions the importance, “the sanctity,” of family. That keystone so crucial to the health of our society is much diminished these days. Here’s just one recent example. In an August 2025 poll of 18-29 year-olds, males who voted for Donald Trump for president declared that having children placed first in their definition of personal success. Female Trump voters made children a sixth place priority; female Harris voters put having children at 12th place, or next to last.
More important than building a family for these women, conservatives and progressives alike, were objectives like ‘achieving financial independence,” “having a job or a career you find fulfilling,” and “owning your own home.” With those as priorities, the family takes a back seat to ambition and materialism, and the culture will continue to crumble.
In an interview, Kirk was asked how he would want to be remembered. “I wanna be remembered for my courage for my faith,” he said. “That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith in my life.”
Clearly, those of us who believe that faith and family are in need of repair and restoration have our work cut out for us. We therefore need to live out and defend our faith with courage, as did Charlie Kirk, teach our children truth and goodness, and hold fast to reality against the falsehoods so prevalent today.
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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.
Image Credit: Flickr-Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0
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